Dirt
TRIBUTE: RON LEEK
Let’s start with Ron Leek taking on the govern-
ment to save his race rack...and winning. You need
know nothing else about a man willing to fight
the government if you are wondering about the
strength of his will. While everyone likes to report
about Ron’s effect on bracket racing, his creation
of the World Power Wheelstanding Competition,
etc, his biggest victory came against large forces
trying to choke him out.
By the time the late 1990s had rolled around,
Byron Dragway was not exactly in the best of
shape financially. Burdened with increasing pres-
sures from the government of Ogle County, Leek
was looking to fend off what he (correctly) saw as
efforts by the county government to put him out
of business by limiting his hours, limiting what
he was able to do with his property, and basically
limiting his ability to pay his bills. Unable to race
on Fridays, events had to be done by 6:30 p.m.
on Saturdays, and Sundays were made previously
short per the county rules. This was a recipe for
financial ruin.
After a few years of taking his lumps, Leek
decided enough was enough and went to battle.
After losing the first round in court, Leek ap-
pealed his case to a higher court and they decided
in his favor. They ruled that the actions of the
County of Ogle were against the law and could not
be enforced. Their encroachment of his business
was over. He not only won that battle but later
had the track annexed by the city of Byron which
officially ended the issues he was having with
the county and the city of Rockford for good. He
wore them all down and won. Perhaps his most
incredible victory in a life full of them.
But there’s more to talk about here.
As an announcer, Leek will forever stand
among the best that American motorsports has
ever seen. He did all kinds of different stuff from
drag racing, to stock cars, to monster trucks, and
even stunt shows. He worked for Evel Knievel
for a time and related a hilarious story about
those days to me.
“We were at an arena getting set up and Evel
took me up to the announcing booth where a guy
was standing there waiting for us. Evel explained
that I’d be the announcer that night and the guy in
the booth said that he was the announcer and that
was how it was going to be. Evel immediately got
pissed off and started yelling at this guy. The guy
stood his ground and then, strangely, Evel calmed
down. After a couple more minutes of talking,
Evel asked for the mic to see what the arena’s
sound system was like. He took the microphone,
which was a big 1970s metal one, and proceeded
to beat the shit out of the announcer guy with
it. After the ‘announcer’ decided he had enough,
he kind of ran off and we never saw him again.
Knievel wasn’t the nicest guy in the world and
I announced that night into a microphone that
Ron Leek was an
American original.
As a track promoter
and innovator, he
stands in a unique
class. As a man,
he stands in a unique
class. As a business
operator, he stands
in a unique class.
looked like someone had used it to pound nails.”
Ron loved telling the story of a monster truck
event that featured a packed arena full of 1980s
car-crushing fans. He looked around the room
at the people hanging out with him and said,
“Watch this.” He then welcomed special guest
“Paul Newman” to the arena and bragged on New-
man, telling the fans that he wasn’t in a special
area, he was sitting among them somewhere in
the seats! The whole thing was a giant lie and
he said people’s heads were spinning on their
shoulders trying to spot Newman, who was likely
not within a 1,000-mile radius of the show. They
all roared with laughter.
His acumen and shrewdness as a promoter and
track operator were on full display many times
in his life. A time that he loved to laugh about
concerned a construction project and an interest-
ing labor pool. An additional set of bleachers was
under construction at the track and with weather
and other delays was not going to be finished
for the event they were intended to help bolster
seating for. On the day of said event, Leek was
panicking because as the gates opened up, he
had basically the metal frame for a grandstand,
lumber, and nowhere for anyone to sit on one side
of the drag strip. Within 15 minutes of opening
he had a grand idea. As the place began to fill up,
he called (as he said), “every able-bodied man” to
the timing tower. He then dispatched his newly
formed workforce to the lumber pile where the
long 2x12 boards (seating for the grandstand)
were sitting. You know how the rest of this goes.
The swarm of people hauled the wood to the
stands and hastily slapped together their own
seats! Yes, Ron Leek got people to pay him to
build that grandstand and he howled when tell-
ing that story.
There was a passion and excitement from
Ron that I’ve never forgotten and never will. He
knew loads of stuff about old cars and trucks and
sometimes it kind of escaped as a fruit salad of
words and expressions. My favorite memory of
this came in Bowling Green with his butchery
of the word Anglia. For three days, every time
an Anglia came up it was an ANGULA. I do not
know now and surely did not then how to correct
a legend so I sat on it for days until finally on
Sunday I said something to him. He looked at me
with his big (and sometimes frightening) eyes and
said, “Lohnes, I have been doing that for three
days and you are just telling me?!” Sheepishly I
said yes and then he burst out laughing, “Hell, I
have probably been doing that for 20 years and
no one has ever said a damned thing to me about
it!!” He was truly awesome.
I could go on for hours.
Ron Leek was an American original. He did
all the stuff he needed to do to survive from
childhood to adulthood. As a track promoter
and innovator, he stands in a unique class. As a
man, he stands in a unique class. As a business
operator, he stands in a unique class. Over the
span of 80 years, Ron Leek lived the lives of 10
men. A truly spectacular person and a man who,
without knowing, left me treasures to call upon
in both career and life for the duration of my days.
Angulas and all.
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DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
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